Wrongly convicted Dallas man let out after 25 years

A man convicted of rape 25 years ago was formally cleared Tuesday when a judge ruled that DNA testing proved he did not commit the crime. After state District Judge Lana McDaniel's ruling, supporters of 57-year-old Larry Fuller broke out in applause. A prosecutor also apologized to Fuller. "Thank you," Fuller responded. "Apology accepted."

Fuller was sentenced to 50 years after jurors convicted him of aggravated rape in 1981, finding that he broke into a 37-year-old woman's apartment and raped her, using a butcher knife to cut the victim's thumb, neck and back as she struggled. The victim looked at two photo lineups, both of which included Fuller. She picked him in the second one, even though Fuller was bearded in the picture and she said her attacker had no facial hair.

At the time Fuller was a 32-year-old Vietnam veteran who had received the Air Medal for taking care of his crew. He was pursuing a career in art and had worked as a driver and warehouse employee. Although Fuller had no convictions for sexual assault, he had pleaded guilty to robbing a convenience store in 1975 and been sentenced to three years in prison. Fuller served 18 years on the rape conviction. He was released in 1999 but sent back last year for a parole violation.

All the while, Fuller professed his innocence in the rape case and tried to prove it through DNA. This year, the Dallas County District Attorney's office agreed to allow the additional testing. [Big of them!]

More than 20 men have been exonerated in Texas by DNA testing, according to the Innocence Project, a New York-based legal aid group which uses DNA to free wrongly convicted people. Co-director Barry Scheck said he wants Texas to examine why so many convictions have been overturned by DNA evidence. Nationwide, 183 people have been cleared through DNA evidence after their convictions, according to the Innocence Project. In most cases, testimony from mistaken eyewitness identification led to the wrongful conviction, the group said.

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